1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to systems and methods for facilitating a user's access to web services and disparate enterprise systems where data and commands may be exchanged using an instant messaging client and an automated attendant.
2. Background of the Invention
The existence and popularity of instant messaging (IM) is known. IM allows users to “chat” with other users in real time. That is, it allows users to communicate with each other by permitting each user to view text messages from other users essentially instantaneously. The IM client software that is required for IM communication is becoming more pervasive and is now incorporated into operating systems, personal digital assistants, cell phones, and other systems.
Most IM communications are still between individuals for personal communication. Some companies have started using IM for some business communications. Although the prospect of using IM for business communications may be intriguing, businesses so far have found limited use for IM applications because various limitations exist with IM uses in business applications. For instance, under certain circumstances it may be desirable for an enterprise employee to have real-time access to an enterprise or a legacy system regardless of their physical location. These enterprise and legacy systems may provide various functionalities and services to am enterprise. Greater access to these systems by employees may provide significant benefit to the enterprise. Unfortunately, IM employee users are typically not able to access these enterprise and legacy systems through an IM client application for various reasons including, for example, the lack of appropriate security layers generally needed to prevent unauthorized access of the enterprise and legacy systems.
Some limited efforts have been made to produce development kits to create automated attendants for use with IM in order to fully appreciate the value of IM. However, these automated attendants tend to have limited capabilities. For instance, some currently available automated attendants used with IM may allow users to query for information from a particular information server or to locate a particular website. These systems, however, tend to have limited functionality and as a result, limited application.